Riding School Kids...

M

Mollymillymoo

Well-Known Member
Joined
14 September 2007
Messages
379
Visit site
I couldn't believe what happened at our yard today, there is a lovely coloured cob whose owner has been looking for a sharer for as he is quite green and needs to be ridden more often than she has time to do. She found a couple of 13/14 year old girls last weekend and they came down today to ride him.

When I got there they were cantering round the arena and popping him over some tiny jumps - they were just enjoying themselves, mucking about with him and it was sweet to watch, but he looked quite tired so I expected them to stop, which they did after about half an hour. They left the arena as someone else had gone in to ride, but the moment they left the girls went back in and put the jumps up again, spending another hour and a half pushing him on. By this point I had gone to speak to the people in the yard behind because I was worried about him, he only get ridden 2/3 times a week and only for half an hour tops usually. It turned out they had got there and lunged him about 9am, then got on and had been riding since 10, and they only stopped at 2pm when my friend went to ask them to call it a day - the poor boy was stubling over the jumps and could barely trot he was so stiff. He could end up tying up,or at the very least stiff tomorrow. I would have said something but I didn't feel it was my place, I don't know them nor the owner particularly well. I feel really guilty about it now, but it makes you wonder what riding schools are teaching children about ponies, as it was clear they were straight out of one from the way they could ride but seemed clueless about when to stop.

Sorry bit of a rant but I couldn't believe it, and now feel really guilty about not telling em to pack it in sooner.
 
I would definately had a word with them, before it had got to that stage, i am suprised they wernt under supervision at that age, as they dont usually have much sense.
 
Well I don't think supervision is the problem. ALL the kids that help at our yard would know not to do that, every single one of them!
 
You would be very suprised what children will do when not supervised, and i would imagine that these children are not from a very horsey background...
 
[ QUOTE ]
I would definately had a word with them, before it had got to that stage, i am suprised they wernt under supervision at that age, as they dont usually have much sense.

[/ QUOTE ]

Bit of a sweeping generalisation there! Not all 13 and 14 year olds are this daft .
 
hmm I have no idea where they're from, but they didn't have an adult with them so I would guess they aren't from horsey families and have just learnt to ride at a riding school somewhere. We told his owner and hopefully she will make sure they know their limits next time, if there is a next time. I will give it to them that as soon as they were told to stop they did, and didn't argue/have a bad attitude... it was like they just hadn't realised you don't ride solidly for 5 hours....
 
More fool the owner for not looking after her horses interests!!!! I cant believe that someone would not be caring enough to supervise the first few loan days
mad.gif
 
aww poor horse, i bet he'll have bad memories in the arena now. I would think it was more the owner's fault, not being there the first time to see these children ride.
 
They have probably been to one of these riding schools where the ponies are just used in lesson after lesson after lesson all day and they think that is normal for a horse. Perhaps just needing a little education about a horse's level of fitness, what it appropriate for that horse to do in a day, etc.

I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt here (rightly or wrongly) because I used to work at a RS where ponies were used all day and could easily have got the wrong ideas if it wasn't for the fact that I have horsey parents who showed/told me the right way.
 
hmm I certainly wouldn't let people I didn't know do what they wanted with my boy. But the owner is a lovely woman, just a bit naive I think - she loves him to bits, so it's not like she doesn't care, just didn't expect them to do that.
 
thats what I thought - my friend keeps her pony at a riding school near her house cos then doesnt have to pay for anything, where he gets ridden at least 3 hours a day. But it does make you wonder why riding schools don't teach children things about fitness, when they leave or perhaps get their own ponies things like this happen.
 
very similar thing happened on my yard, again a sharer set up to in theory help with the horses care and fitness. came down to the girl showing off 'their' horse to the friends, she was stopped, owner informed and both asked to discuss a suitable fitness programme for the horse (which was stiff and suffered with swelling and heat in a fore leg) they should know its for the horses welfare it isnt overworked but also that if worked like that it will go lame and no one will have the pleasure of riding it, if they have no common sense or caring decency for the animals welfare they will at least understand they will be shooting themselves in the foot if the horse is unridable
 
Have seen a similar experience with someone buying a RS pony.
Untill they got told it was wrong they didn't warm up ever. They walked round the school then were trotting and cantering straight after.
They werent the only one like that either
frown.gif
 
I use to look after a pony on weekends with his owner but I was never into the riding part he could be quite grumpy so an other girl would ride him bet when the owner was away on holiday I was to look after him for the week had done this before. I was told the girl would be riding him she took him to the gallops one of the days did not tell me he had not done this before he was 16 and had not done much work for a while before this he was so stiff for the week afterwards and the worst thing was I did not know she had done this so I was about to lunge him when the y/m came to see if he was ok and I had know idea about what happened he said that I had agreed to let her ride him up the gallops I was so embarrassed. It turned out the girl was a riding school kid
 
QR- so where are children not lucky enough to be from horsey backgrounds ment to learn?
Riding schools can be fab,some are awful but then you could get bad tuition from a friend/freelance too.
IMO you get out what you put inmost RI's will be more then happy to talk about more then just when to kick if you show an intrest!

As for OP they were not silly because they learned at a RS,but because they were unsuperised children given a horse to play with.The owner should have been there to make sure all was well.They could have done much worse then they did and/or ended up hurt themselves.Dont think non horsey parents would have been too understanding if one of them had had a nasty fall.....
 
When I was 13 (living in France) I used to teach beginners on the lunge all day at a RS in the summer, in return for rides and lessons. They just left me to greet the (mostly adult) clients, tack up the horses, do the lessons and everything, totally unsupervised!

I thought nothing of it at the time, but now I wonder what on earth people thought about some little 13yo kid giving them lessons! I'm amazed that nobody ever complained.

shocked.gif
 
(QR)
I've been brought up mainly through riding schools with non horsey parents, but it just seems common sense to me to warm up and not overwork a horse. If anything I can be a bit a too cautious with other people's horses! So we're not all bad!!

It could be the first time these girls have been left with a horse without an instructor telling them what to do, and therefore no one to tell them when to stop! I'm sure they'll learn with some supervision.
 
I too learnt at riding schools until I got my first share pony at 13. I was left unsupervised to ride him and would never have done what is previously mentioned - please dont tar us all with the same brush...
I think a major issue now is that riding schools now get scared to let kids volunteer to help at the yard at weekends coz of health and safety regs, insurance and liability. I used to spend every waking Saturday at the riding school, and learnt so so much there, but kids these days often wont get that opportunity. I'm sure these girls would relish the chance to learn more about horses - they probably just haven't had the opportunity. If they're anything like I was they'd give their right arm to have been bought up with ponies, please give them a chance.
 
[ QUOTE ]
I would definately had a word with them, before it had got to that stage, i am suprised they wernt under supervision at that age, as they dont usually have much sense.

[/ QUOTE ]


This isnt always the case (i was never like this at that age) but all to often is. A few months back i was out hunting and had been out on the hunt for about 4 hours or so, plenty of galloping about etc so all the horses were quite tired and ready to call it a day, but riding back to the trailers, two girls about 13/14 were still cantering their ponys and jumping them over logs instead of just cooling them down and giving them a break, i wasnt to impressed.
 
exactly, I'm fed up with riding school riders being given a bad rep...
the girls in the original post sound very inconsiderate but that isn't what all riding school riders are like...
 
just wanted to add that it sometimes doesnt make any difference if kids are taught to ride aswell as taught how to treat ponies with respect, i work in a riding school and im forever telling the kids to stop pushing ponies to far, most of their ponies are at the stage of being paddock shy now. i explain to them each time that im only looking out for their ponies wellbeing but its at the stage now where they arent aloud to use the all weather school unless they are having a lesson!

mollymillymoo - your horse is so pretty!!
 
Actually i grew up in riding schools, didnt have my first pony until i was 13, and then i looked after him by myself as parents completely non horsey! i wouldnt have treated a pony in this way, but then i have also worked on hunting yards where the horses have had the arses galloped of them all day, and that is by adults... so not just children i suppose.
 
i was talking about this subject with my pal not that ago, conversation started over the kids moaning at me for being on at them again! we decided that when people dont have any commom sense then them having horses doesnt work!

have also worked on hunting yards and there was a few silly adults there proving common sense can fail people of any age!
 
It is not the riding school at fault all the time.

Back at my old riding school, we had a few working liveries and on a busy saturday, they would come up to ride their ponies at lunchtime... despite the fact that their horse would already be up to his 3hr max workload on a saturday (that was our standard for the ponies).

They wouldn't just have a little walk and trot round either, they'd work their poor ponies in trot and canter over fence after fence for the entire lunch break with no thought to the fact the he or she might have another lesson or two to do. Ponies would come back in dripping.

I lost count of the number of times we told them off for it and explained how cruel it was. I know it is hard for a kid if their pony is on working livery and busy on weekends but thats life unfortunately - their parents should have backed us up and put a stop to it instead of letting them treat the poor animals like machines.

Having said that, there were also some great kids who would come up and just groom and pet their pony on a saturday and give him some treats. They did most of their riding during the week.
 
hmm it's interesting to hear different points of view on this subject, thanks everyone for commenting.
smile.gif
I believe the owner of the pony in question felt that the girls were responisble enough to ride, muck out, stick pony out, go home etc. and not do what they did... on our yard the horses don't get ridden anywhere near as much as riding school horses so I don't think it crossed her mind that they would do that.

Riding school people - obviously you're not all like these numpties, I was meant to come across as having a dig at the riding schools, not the people that learn in them! and I learnt in them too - came out barely able to trot on my own after 4 years... needless to say I didn't find them very helpful lol.

[ QUOTE ]
As for OP they were not silly because they learned at a RS,but because they were unsuperised children given a horse to play with.The owner should have been there to make sure all was well.They could have done much worse then they did and/or ended up hurt themselves.Dont think non horsey parents would have been too understanding if one of them had had a nasty fall.....

[/ QUOTE ]

I don't think the parents would be in any position to complain if their children had hurt themselves, the parents allowed the children to go down knowing they would not be supervised, on a horse the children didn't know. I am not a parent but I know even now that I would not let my children do that, and if I did then it certainly would not cross my mind to be ticked off with the owner of the horse. Fair enough I am from a horsey family but even the most badly informed people realise how dangerous horse riding is.

And littletinker, thank you!
laugh.gif
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top